Harvey Milk crisis call center opening

May 21, 2011 6:56:41 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO --

In the 1970s, gay rights leader and city Supervisor Harvey Milk famously took calls at his social and political campaign headquarters in San Francisco from gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth seeking hope about the future.

On Sunday, the site of that one-time base, the Castro Camera store, will open as a suicide crisis call center for The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that provides crisis intervention to LGBTQ youth.

The unveiling of the Trevor Lifeline's Harvey Milk Call Center at 575 Castro St. will fall on what would have been Milk's 81st birthday.

The ribbon untying ceremony and tours, which are free and open to the public, will be attended by political and gay rights luminaries, according to The Trevor Project.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein have said they will try to attend, a project spokeswoman said.

Feinstein was president of the Board of Supervisors when Milk was assassinated by fellow Supervisor Dan White on Nov. 27, 1978, along with then-Mayor George Moscone.

Also in attendance will be members of Milk's inner circle, including Cleve Jones, Anne Kronenberg, Frank Robinson, Michael Wong and Dan Nicoletta.

Stuart Milk, Harvey Milk's nephew and co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation, will also be there, along with Academy Award winners Dustin Lance Black and James Lecesne, a co-founder of The Trevor Project.

State Sen. Mark Leno and Board of Supervisors President David Chiu will be among the local politicians attending the opening.

Lecesne co-founded The Trevor Project after helping create an Oscar-winning short film about a 13-year-old boy who tried to commit suicide when his friends rejected him because of his sexuality.